Trial set to begin in 2010 slaying of woman outside Oak Brook hotel
Melissa Bridgewater was leaving an Oak Brook hotel on New Year's Day 2010 when the 45-year-old mother and former homecoming queen was shot five times through the driver's side window of her car.
For five days, police carried out an intense manhunt for her ex-husband, Jerry Hudson, before he surrendered on first-degree murder charges.
This week, Hudson faces trial in DuPage County. Prosecutors have said he gunned down Bridgewater in a “cold, calculated and premeditated manner.” Hudson's attorney plans to argue self-defense, according to court records.
Preparations for the trial in front of Judge Daniel Guerin are scheduled to begin with jury selection today. The roughly weeklong trial is expected to open Wednesday.
Hudson, 51, of Bolingbrook, faces a minimum 45 years in prison if convicted of the “execution-style” killing outside the Doubletree Hotel on Spring Road in Oak Brook.
Prosecutors have said the slaying was initially planned as a murder-suicide, with Hudson leaving behind a cryptic note: “Melissa has taken my manhood, so I'm taking her with me. I can't leave this earth knowing she used me for 20 years. Please forgive me. I don't need to suffer anymore.”
The night before the shooting, Bridgewater attended a gathering of step dancers at the hotel and ended up staying the night. Police said Hudson lured her out about 6:30 the next morning by calling and telling her he was ransacking her Bolingbrook home.
A hotel employee escorted Bridgewater to her car at her request, authorities said. As she began to drive off, Hudson rammed his rental car into her vehicle, then got out and shot her five times through her driver's side window before fleeing, police said.
Three days later, Hudson's rented Hyundai Tiburon was found abandoned in front of a Chicago apartment building, and the next day he surrendered to Oak Brook police.
Prosecutors said police tied Hudson to the crime scene through cellphone records, and cameras at tollway I-PASS booths captured some of his escape.
Hudson's attorney has disputed prosecutors' assertion that his client fled. He has said Hudson was grieving Bridgewater's death and ultimately turned himself in after consulting an attorney and being formally charged.
Bridgewater's parents could not be reached for comment Monday. Last year, they told the Daily Herald their daughter stayed out of trouble growing up in Maywood the youngest of three children.
A former Proviso East High School homecoming queen, Bridgewater went on to have two sons, La Var and Julian, and to work as a physician-coding specialist for nearly 14 years, relatives said.
About two weeks before the murder, Bridgewater spoke of a new boyfriend, according to her mother.
“That might have been what got her killed. She was going to move on with her life and put old stuff behind her,” Gladys Bridgewater said last year.
Hudson, who goes by the nickname “Shorty,” has diabetes and spinal cancer, according to his attorney.
He is being represented by John F. Lyke Jr. and Ashley Shambley of Lyke's Chicago law office, and prosecuted by Assistant State's Attorneys Mary Cronin and Mike Fisher.
Both the prosecution and defense declined to comment ahead of trial.